Rikku in Wonderland
by Rikku's twin
Summary: Carelessly, she landed in a place where you must rule the darkness in your own heart, or lose yourself to it.
1. Into the Hole

(Ok guys, I know I have written anything in a looooooooooooong time. I kinda gave up on the Peter Pan type story sorry. I just kinda lost my inspiration, but this one is gonna be great!!! I promise!!!! So please Read and Review. Oh! And I don't own ANYTHING!!)

(Oh! and you guys know i always have to have a little romance in my stories, so don't worry there will be some of that too :3)

Rikku in Wonderland

Chapter 1: Into the Hole

It was just a normal day on the Celsius and Rikku was just sitting at the bar as usual. Barkeep was washing some dishes off in the back, and she sighed. The Al Bhed girl sat there thinking, '_It's funny how things changed so fast. Tidus came back, Yunie left. When Yunie left so did Paine, she mumbled something about Baralai and disappeared. There's no more YRP, there are barely any spheres to find. It looks like everybody has moved on, except for me. _

Rikku's thoughts were suddenly interrupted when she heard Brother yelling over the intercom, "Rikku! Kad du dra pnetka essateydamo!" (Rikku! Get to the bridge immediately!)

Rikku sighed softly and walked lazily to the elevator as she said aloud to herself, "Hmm, I wonder what he wants now."

When the elevator stopped at the bridge, she yawned and walked to Brother. "What do you want now Brother?" she said in a somewhat annoyed tone.

"Rikku!" Brother exclaimed. "There are—"

"Sphere waves coming from Bevelle," Buddy calmly interrupted.

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's get over there!" Rikku jumped around excitedly. The Gullwings hadn't recovered any spheres in such a long time; there was no limit to the good feeling.

It was no time before they arrived in Bevelle and Rikku was walking around, exploring. She found no trace of any spheres outside so she slipped into the big building where she, Yuna, and Paine had once jumped into a hole to fight Vegnagun. The blonde girl snuck past some guards and followed the path she had taken not too long ago. Rikku looked around the area where the big hole used to be.

"Ohh, where could that sphere be?" Rikku stomped her foot childishly, feeling like she just wanted to give up already.

Rikku was walking backwards and looking all around when the back of her foot hit something hard and she suddenly fell. She flinched and closed her eyes tightly, expecting make contact with the cold, hard ground, but instead she just kept falling and falling. She slowly opened her eyes and she was falling through darkness, looking up through a huge hole at the room she used to be in. Swirling around her were brief flashes of color, appearing brilliant and vibrant for a millisecond, and then fading back into the abyssal darkness.

It felt like Rikku had been falling for hours and she was starting to get impatient.

"Ok, I get it, I'm falling! Can I land already?" Rikku cried out loud, frustrated and bored.

As if granting her wish, she landed in a spongy patch of violet-colored flowers and was surrounded by soft light. The blonde girl slowly stood up and looked around.

"This looks like the place where we came to first to fight Vegnagun… where Yunie met Shuyin." Rikku walked around, although there was nothing distinguishable from where she'd fallen, all the flowers of the same shape and color. Glowing, glittering pyreflies danced around in the thick air. Rikku heard a quiet laugh from behind her, and she turned around. Then she saw a young boy in a purple robe. She couldn't see his face.

The little kid laughed and ran as she followed him curiously.

"H-hey, kid… shouldn't you be with your parents?" The kid started running faster and the blonde girl had to jog to keep up with him.

The child suddenly turned to her and said, "Come on, this way slow poke!"

"Heeeey, I'm not slow!" Rikku pouted, but then went running after the boy to keep up with him.

He turned and laughed once more and then there was a huge explosion of bright light. Rikku tried to shield her eyes with her hands, but it didn't help one bit. When the light faded she looked around and the little boy was nowhere to be seen.

Rikku looked around in awe. "Where am I _now_…?"

(Ok boys and girls! There's chapter 1!!! Just in case you couldn't tell the kid with the purple robe is the Bahamut Fayth kid so yeah . lol. Tell me and Sarah what you think about it. Without Sarah NOTHING would get done lmao. So yeah, I'll get chapter 2 up a.s.a.p. if you guys really like the story. Trust me, it's gonna get better and creepy things are gonna start happening :3 so yeah. Read and Review. Thaaaaanks )


	2. Wonderland

(I don't own **ANYTHING**!)

(by the way, it would be nice to get some reviews  as u can see I'm really short on reviews for this story and yeah TT)

**Chapter 2: Wonderland**

Rikku stood there at the foot of a huge white castle that looked a little tilted and crooked at some parts. She saw that the huge gates were open and started to walk in to explore the area but a huge card with a head, arms and legs (that happened to be a four of diamonds) stopped her.

"Stop right there, trespasser, or I'll have to report you to the king!" The silly-looking card-man spoke harshly, stopping her with its big red spear.

Rikku stood there, speechless and dumbfounded. '_Did that card really just talk…?' _

"_Hey_! Did you hear me!? I'll report you to the king, and he'll have you beheaded if you don't leave immediately!" The card yelled at Rikku, snapping her out of her daze.

"I, uh . . . the king?" Rikku was then distracted by a noise that couldn't have been coming from far away. She had heard laughing from that little boy from before. She turned around quickly just in time to see him run into a forest filled with monstrously huge trees that never seemed to end, every possible shade of green mixed in among the enormous leaves. Without really thinking, Rikku ran off in the direction of the child who had landed her in this mess.

When she got into the forest, the boy was nowhere to be found. Rikku looked around and saw herself surrounded by trees, endless numbers of evergreens, pines, oaks, maples, and any other tree one can try to name. She heard the little boy laugh yet again, but as she searched wildly, there were no children to be found. The petite Al Bhed girl went running in the direction she thought she heard the laugh come from, but when she stopped to catch her breath, the laughing was coming from a completely different direction. This cat-and-mouse game went on until Rikku was truly exhausted, and stood with her hands on her knees, gasping for breath.

Rikku looked straight ahead and saw a huge mushroom with an odd creature lying lazily on the plant with smoke coming out of its mouth. The blonde girl cautiously approached, until she could easily see what kind of _thing_ it was. She almost fell over when she realized that it was a caterpillar smoking something disgustingly scented. The oversized insect glanced at the flabbergasted teenager and frowned.

"Who _are you_?" It blew the letters r and u right in her face, a skill of a creature that smoked so much.

The Al Bhed girl coughed some and waved her hand around in front of her face, trying to get the smoke away from her. She looked up at the huge caterpillar in astonishment.

"I… I…. Err, my name is Rikku."

'_Is that caterpillar smoking . . . a hookah?' _Rikku looked up at the oddly colored caterpillar, observing every little detail of it.

"R-I-K-K-U." The insect blew out the letters as it said her name. "What an _odd _name for a creature," It said rudely as it looked her up and down, taking another drag out of its hookah.

"Hey! I'm not a creature! I'm a girl!" The Al Bhed stomped her foot childishly and crossed her arms. "And Rikku happens to be a _great_ name! What's yours, huh?" She glowered at the now extremely tall caterpillar.

"That, my dear, is none of your business." It replied in a calm manner.

(Editor's Note: I'm naming the caterpillar Wubba.)

"Well . . . fine then! I'm out of here!" Rikku stormed off through the forest, attempting to return to where she'd come from, although she went completely the wrong way.

Half an hour later, the blonde girl found herself hopelessly lost. She looked around, hoping to see something that would help her. All she ended up gazing at were the same types of trees, bushes, and rocks scattered around.

While Rikku was looking around, she failed to notice a huge grin appear hovering over a tree's branch and then a purple cat with light stripes show up around the smile. It looked at her intently and then finally spoke. "Lost?"

Rikku whirled around to see where the voice came from, but found no one.

"W-who's there?"

"Up here." The cat looked down at her with it's abnormally huge grin, it's eyes dancing.

The Al Bhed looked up to see that creepy smile on the cat's face. "Y-you? But you're a cat! How can you…?" Rikku started to pose a question, but stopped herself and sighed, defeated. "Ah, nothing really surprises me anymore in whatever this place is. Anyways, can you tell me which way to go to get out of this Yevon-forsaken forest?" She looked up at the cat with her swirly green eyes.

"Hmm, depends on where you want to go. If you go that way—" The cat pointed in a direction. "You'll end up at a very odd tea party. If you go that way—" He pointed in another direction with his other hand "you'll run into two very annoying people indeed."

"More annoying then you?" Rikku crossed her arms, smirking.

"Very funny, I'll pretend that you didn't say that. Now if you go that way---" Another cat arm appeared on the cat's body pointing in another direction "-you'll arrive at a big castle where you're sure to be beheaded and if you got that way—" The cat started talking so fast that the poor girl couldn't keep up. So many arms were appearing on his body as he kept talking and talking.

"So it all depends on where you want to go," The cat finished, looking at Rikku who looked back dumbfounded.

"Well, you were no help at all!" Rikku stomped her foot, stuck out her tongue, and marched off, leaving the cat there to slowly disappear the same way appeared, until only its eyes were left, shining and watching her walk away until she was out of sight, and the cat's eyes disappeared as well.

As Rikku kept walking, she was unaware of another pair of eyes watching and following her every move.

"Stupid good for nothing caterpillars and cats," Rikku mumbled to herself as she kicked a rock, not really paying attention to where she was going.

"Stop." An arm suddenly reached out in front of Rikku, holding her back, therefore stopping her from moving. Rikku looked to the side to see who this arm belonged to and found a girl with dirty blonde hair, with cat ears the same color as her hair and a tail to match.

"Look down," The girl said calmly.

Rikku looked down to see one of her feet hanging over the side of a cliff. Her eyes widened as she looked down at the seemingly endless fall she could have taken if this girl hadn't stopped her. The blonde girl quickly jumped back and looked out at the horizon. She temporarily forgot about her near death experience as she looked around at the waterfalls and the vibrant colors coming off in every direction. It looked kind of like paradise.

"What is this place?" Rikku asked, looking around in awe. The grass was never this green in Spira, not even in the Calm Lands, and the water was never that clear, not even in Kilika or Bevelle.

The girl to the right of Rikku laughed a little and looked out at the view as well. "This is Wonderland."

Rikku snapped out of her daze as she looked at the girl to the right of her. "I forgot to thank you for saving me, so… thank you. What's your name?" Rikku smiled at her new friend.

"Sara. What's yours?" One of Sara's ears twitched as she looked at the blonde girl in front of her.

"I'm Rikku!" She smiled and put her thumb to her chest. She put her hand down as she leaned forward and started observing Sara's ears.

"You can touch them if you'd like." Sara laughed, clearly amused. She suddenly heard a sharp whistle and she pulled away before Rikku got the chance to touch her soft looking feline ears.

"I-I'm sorry, I… I must go! Run Rikku and get to somewhere safe. Hide there until the darkness passes. It's unsafe to be out when it is dark. We will meet again, Rikku." And with that, Sara jumped into a tree and was gone before Rikku could say anything more to the cat-girl.

Rikku looked back out at the view and the sky started getting dark, the sun setting much faster than it ever did in Spira. She looked at the once-clear waterfalls and saw that they were now pouring what looked more like blood than water.

Her swirly green eyes widened as she looked around and red vines started to appear from the ground and creep towards the trees. The vines seemed to wrap themselves around the trees and grow even more. It became dark and all Rikku could see were the faint outline of the trees. That's when she started running.


	3. When Darkness Falls

(I don't own **ANYTHING**!)

Chapter 3: When Darkness Falls

It was 8 a.m. on Besaid Island as a young couple slept in bed, peaceful and happy. This bliss was rudely cut short with the loud wailing of the spherecom. The blonde man groaned softly and rolled over in bed, reaching carefully over his bedmate, trying hard not to wake her. The little screen blipped to an image of a frantic Brother, who was babbling nonsense in a mixture of English and Al Bhed so that no one would really be able to understand. The blonde man sleepily rubbed his brilliant blue eyes as he looked at the image of Brother.

"Calm down, Brother. Now tell me what happened," Tidus yawned.

"IT'S RIKKU! She went to go investigate some sphere waves coming from Bevelle and she hasn't come back!" Brother panicked.

"I'm sure she's fine Brother. You should stop panicking like this when people leave for a little while." Tidus started to lean forward to turn off the device, but then he head Brother yell, "SHE'S BEEN GONE FOR A WEEK!!!"

"What!?" Tidus was pushed backwards as his bedmate, Yuna, pushed his arm away and moved towards the sphere.

"Yuna!" Brother exclaimed. "Please help Rikku! I try talking to her on the walkie-talkie but all I get is fuzz! So I called Gippal, and he says there is nothing wrong with the machine! Rikku is lost!"

Yuna looked over at Tidus. He nodded, and she turned back to the screen.

"How soon can you be here?"

"We'll be there soon," came Gippal's voice as he came into view on the screen from behind Brother. He smiled and turned off the spherecom.

**In Wonderland**

Rikku ran through the forest as fast as she could, dodging trees left and right. It felt like somebody was chasing her, but she was too scared to look behind her for fear of what she might see. She ran faster and faster, feeling the cold sweat on her face sliding down to her chin and dropping to the ground. She felt branches hitting her on her face, arms, and occasionally her legs, leaving small scrapes.

She took a sudden sharp turn and rested her back against a tree, breathing heavily. She dared to peek around the tree, her chest rising and falling slowly as she tried to slow her breathing back to normal. Her heart started to beat faster with each passing second as she got closer and closer to seeing what she thought was chasing her.

What she saw next horrified her. It had turned out that her instinct was right; she was being chased. She was being chased not by just one creature, but what looked like a pack.

It was a pack of monstrous things that slightly resembled wolves, but also looked sort of like bears. They all had fiendish grins on their faces, their fangs bright against the deep darkness surrounding. The monsters were drooling and disgusting, with powerfully sharp claws and clumps of dirty fur in between grotesque-looking spikes that appeared to be filled with a horrifying sort of liquid. Some of them might have even had tails. Rikku didn't plan on sticking around to see for sure.

Rikku quickly pulled her head back behind the tree and rested her back against it, breathing heavily, her heart pounding much faster then it was before. _'I've never seen a fiend that looked like those things…th-they can't be anything from Spira… th-this can't be happening. This is all just a bad dream.' _Rikku thought to herself frantically, wishing it really _were_ just a nightmare.

She dared to look from behind the tree again and saw a few of the terrorizing thing sniffing the ground, searching for her scent. One of them looked up and glared straight at her and let out a low growl as more of the disgusting liquid dripped from its mouth. The young Al Bhed's eyes widened when she realized that she had been discovered.

She wasn't going to wait around and get slashed to bits by those bloodthirsty creatures. Rikku took off running again, dodging huge trees and barely avoiding huge branches to the face. She looked ahead and saw the clearing where she could finally get out of this Yevon-forsaken forest. She looked behind her to see that the creatures were about half a sphere pool away.

She turned and faced in front of her, grinning a little, thinking that she was going to get out of this alive. Right as she was about to make it out of the forest, Rikku's foot got caught on the root of a tree sticking out and she fell to the ground with a loud thud, knocking the wind out of her. She felt her head collide with something very hard on the way down, probably some kind of rock.

For a moment, she thought that it was getting even darker, if that were even possible. Then she realized- _'I'm losing consciousness.' _She felt a warm substance starting to spread beneath her head, forming a small pool. She was loosing consciousness and the last thing she saw before she fell into complete darkness were the slobbering, evil faces of the monstrous creatures closing in on her.

**Back in Spira**

"So she's been missing for a week and you just told us now?" Tidus looked at Brother, slightly annoyed.

"Well uh… I…" Brother looked around at his crew nervously, silently pleading for help from someone, anyone. They all just shook their heads and looked away.

"We've arrived in Bevelle," Buddy turned to the four of them, interrupting their conversation, saving Brother.

"Great," the ex-summoner spoke. Yuna put her guns in her belt as she walked off the airship with Tidus and Gippal. They looked around everywhere outside and found no trace of Rikku. So they did the same thing the sneaky Al Bhed thief did a week ago; they snuck into the big building where Yuna, Rikku, and Paine had killed Vegnagun a while ago.

The trio looked around in the room when something caught Yuna's foot and she started to fall. Instead of hitting the ground, Tidus had grabbed her hand just in time and was holding her up. He had managed to keep her from falling into a hole that had suddenly appeared beneath Yuna. And Yuna was sure to fall if Tidus let her go. Tidus felt himself starting to slip towards the edge, but Gippal grabbed the back of his shirt.

"I gotcha, buddy," Gippal smirked. But, of course as he said this, Tidus' shirt started to slowly rip. "Shit…" The young Al Bhed cursed under his breath as the shirt ripped all the way and Tidus, Yuna, and Gippal went tumbling into the huge hole.

After what seemed like forever they landed in a bright patch of flowers. Of course Yuna recognized this place, but Shuyin and Lenne should have been in their eternal rest.

_'The reason for coming to this place_,' Yuna thought, _'Is something different._' They all hesitantly walked forward through a clear looking wall and when they came out the other side they were in a completely different world.

"Is this… the Farplane?" Tidus asked in awe as the gang looked around. "Or something else…?"

**Back With Rikku**

Rikku's eyelids slowly fluttered open, but she immediately regretted it as soon as she felt the excruciating pain shoot through her head. She flinched and closed her eyes tightly, but then gradually opened them again. The young Al Bhed sat up very slowly and looked around, trying not to move her injured head too much.

She sighed, annoyed, and asked in an aggravated voice, "Oh great, where am I _now_?"

**(Well, there's chapter 3! Please review and tell me what you think. )**


	4. Tea Party

(I don't own **ANYTHING**!)

**Chapter 4: Tea Party**

Rikku slowly sat up and looked around the dark room. "Oh great, where am I _now_?"

"My room," said a cool male voice from behind the confused blonde.

She shifted her swirly green eyes to the right and stopped on a tall male leaning against the wall near the door with his arms crossed. He looked at her with a piercing gaze, his beautiful cerulean eyes somewhat hidden behind his spiky blonde hair.

"H-how did I get here?" Rikku looked around, embarrassed to meet the handsome man's gaze.

"I found you lying in a pool of your own blood. You're lucky to be alive," the man remarked. His gaze was cool, but not menacing, seemingly ignorant to how flustered the Al Bhed was becoming.

"Th-thank you… um… What's your name again?" The blonde girl brought her gaze back to the man in the black outfit standing before her.

"Cloud Strife. And you are?"

"Rikku!" The petite Al Bhed girl jumped up, smiling proudly, then regretted it as the pain from before eagerly shot up to a critical level of hurt.

"Hmm, Rikku… A name I'll remember," he muttered the last bit more to himself than to the girl on the bed. A pounding on the door interrupted his thoughts.

"Tea time," came a man's cheerful voice from behind the door. Cloud rolled his blue eyes and the doorknob was jiggled a little from the other side. Another voice came from behind the door.

"Is he coming out?" It was a girl's voice, couldn't have been much older than Rikku.

Rikku opened her mouth to say something, but Cloud silently ran across the room to her and covered her mouth with his hand to keep her quiet.

He said softly into her ear, "Don't say anything. Trust me, you'll thank me for it later." Rikku blushed, feeling him so close to her and nodded her head in understanding.

There was suddenly a loud thud causing Rikku and Cloud to snap their heads in the direction of the door. The door suddenly fell to the ground and there stood a girl with long dark brown hair with some streaks in the front. She was wearing a purple top hat that was tilted to the side, and a matching poofy dress that was completed with a neon green apron.

"Cloudie-poo! Were you hiding from us?" The young woman ran and tackled Cloud onto the floor. He had an annoyed look on his face and Rikku couldn't help but feel a pang of jealousy as the young woman clung to the young man.

While Rikku was busy staring at Cloud and the girl on the floor, a man with flaring red hair and light green eyes (so light they seemed to glow) was moving closer.

He was wearing a big black leather coat that covered his entire body.

His face was suddenly really close to Rikku's, she turned her head to see this and jumped back a little, surprised to have her eyes with a pair of light green ones.

"Hmmm, Cloud, who would this fine specimen be?" the redheaded man asked happily, looking Rikku up and down, making her feel uncomfortable.

The blonde man was able to pry the overly clingy girl off of him. Once he managed he stood up and said, "Oh, this is Rikku. Rikku, this is Axel—" Cloud pointed to the man with the dark red hair—"and this… is Rinoa." Just saying the woman's name seemed to annoy Cloud.

"Well, it's tea time!" Rinoa grabbed Cloud's hand and started to pull him, but he held back with as much strength as he could.

"No! No tea time today!" Cloud protested. Rinoa had both her feet on the doorway, pulling with all her strength, now using her legs as levers.

"Don't… be… so… stubborn!" She pulled even harder. The blonde man finally lost his balance and was pulled forward into the hallway into the petite girl.

Rikku tried to contain her laughter at the sight of the two sprawled out on the floor, but failed horribly as she fell to the floor, laughing. The brunette sent an icy glare in Rikku's direction, but realized something was missing.

"MY HAT!" She quickly scrambled across the floor to her big purple top hat and put it back on her head.

"I wouldn't be opposed to tea time." Rikku smiled and stood up. She walked over to Cloud and held her hand out to him, offering to help him up. He gratefully took it and Rikku pulled the blonde man up, feeling Rinoa glaring daggers into the back of her head.

The Al Bhed girl quickly walked past the fuming hatter and found her way outside to a huge long table with lots of different chairs, none of which matched. She was about to sit down in a yellow chair with an orange seat, but it was quickly pulled from beneath her. Rikku fell hard onto her butt and looked up.

"This is MY chair." Rinoa glared at her. Rikku just stood and glared right back.

"My apologies," she said through gritted teeth. Cloud didn't see this display as he sat at the end of the table somewhat next to Rinoa.

The small blonde girl started walking away to find another chair, but was tripped by Rinoa's foot and went tumbling into Cloud. She turned a deep red when she realized how close she was to him. Rikku quickly stood up. "S-sorry!"

As Rikku took a seat next to Cloud (in a red chair with a blue seat) and across from the brunette she thought to herself '_This means war!'_

"Hey, uh, Rikku. Could you pass me the sugar?" Cloud rubbed the back of his head.

Rikku reached and grabbed the sugar, but found that it wouldn't budge.

"No, I got it." Rikku looked across the table to see Rinoa smiling sickeningly sweetly at Cloud with a firm grip on the other end of the sweet substance.

"No, I have it." Rikku yanked back, pulling the sugar closer to her.

"No, I have it!" As Rinoa pulled on it even harder. Rikku grinned evilly.

"Ok, you have it." Rikku let go of the sugar, sending the pot flying into the air, sugar getting all over Rinoa. Her brown hair now had tons of tiny specks of sugar in it. Rinoa's jaw dropped in disbelief, but was quick to recover as she kicked Rikku in the shin hard under the table.

The al Bhed girl bit her lower lip and leaned forward some and said below her breath in pain _'Son of a shoopuff!'_

"Awww! Now my hat has a whole bunch of sugar on it. I want to clean it, but I don't want to take it off." The brunette pouted.

Rikku recovered from the short incident and looked curiously at the girl in the hat. Momentarily forgetting her anger, she asked, "Why not take it off, then? It looks sort of silly."

"WHAT?" Rinoa slammed her hands on the table and stood up. "My hat is NOT silly! There's absolutely nothing silly about my hat! You take that back!"

Both of the girls turned their attention to Cloud who was hiding his mouth with his hand, trying to hide his smile, but they could see his shoulders shaking a little from laughter.

Rinoa had had enough of this. _'I've NEVER been able to make Cloud smile and laugh like that! And now this blonde… TRAMP comes here and does it like it's nothing!" _ Overcome with jealousy, the brunette's hand "accidentally" slipped and knocked Rikku's tea over into her lap.

The Al Bhed girl's eyes widened and she jumped up. "HOT! HOT! HOT!"

"Maybe you two should go wash off in the bathroom. It's right down the hall," Cloud pointed out, trying to be helpful to the unfortunate blonde girl.

Rikku was gone before he finished his sentence. A few minutes later Rinoa jointed her in the bathroom, sharing the big sink with her, they would both occasionally glare at one another out of the corner of their eyes.

It was Rinoa who first splashed water at Rikku and it was only right for Rikku to do the same. Before anybody knew it Rinoa tackled Rikku to the ground.

"I SAW HIM FIRST!" The brunette yelled on top of the blonde, pulling her hair.

"WELL HE LIKES ME MORE!" Rikku bit Rinoa's arm.

Axel had joined Cloud at the table and they both sat there wide-eyed; the catfight could be heard loud and clear. Cloud slowly took a sip of his tea (eventually, Axel had given him another sugar bowl.)

The redhead let out a sigh "This wouldn't be the first time women fought over me. My good looks are as much a curse as they are a blessing." He took a sip of his tea.

"Uh… shouldn't we do… something?" Cloud looked at the other man, putting his teacup down.

"Nah. It's more fun this way," Axel smiled at him.

The two boys heard something break, causing Cloud's eyes to widen even more. "That's it, I'm going in there." The blue-eyed man put his tea down and stood up, but his friend grabbed his arm.

"Oi, Cloud… if you don't come back… can I have the rest of your tea?"

_'Typical Axel,' _Cloud thought to himself while he nodded his head.

"Go ahead man, it's all yours." The blonde man cautiously started walking towards the bathroom door and heard his friend yell after him, "You're a braver man than I am, Cloud!"

Cloud just shook his head and chuckled lightly as he slowly and hesitantly opened the door only to find the two girls tangled in each other, pulling each other's hair, biting, scratching, and Yevon knows what else.

The blonde man quickly ran to them and had to literally pry the petite Al Bhed girl off of Rinoa.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Let's go for a walk, slugger." Cloud had to literally carry Rikku out of there. Rikku just peeked her head over Cloud's shoulder and stuck her tongue out at Rinoa, who was straightening her hat bitterly.

**With Yuna, Tidus, and Gippal**

The trio found themselves in a huge forest surrounded by trees, except for one area that opened up, letting them look out at the view. There were waterfalls and flowers everywhere.

"I don't think we're in Spira anymore…" Gippal looked around, unsure of where exactly they were. He talked into the walkie-talkie on his coat. "Brother can you hear me? Brother?" Static. "Damn… no response…"

A cat with light purple fur and dark purple stripes started to slowly appear on a branch.

"This is Wonderland," The cat talked to the trio, looking down at them.

"Huh? Who said that?" Yuna turned around quickly and looked up to see the cat lying there lazily on the branch.

"I did," the Chesire cat said and grinned his abnormally huge grin.

"I-it talked!" Tidus looked up at the cat in disbelief, his eyes wide.

"Yes, I talked. I was just as surprised when I saw that _you_ could talk," The feline smirked.

Yuna just shook her head, ignoring how weird this was. "Have you seen a blonde Al Bhed girl that's a little shorter then me with green swirly eyes?"  
"Why yes, I did," the cat looked at the brunette girl.

"Will you tell us which way she went?" Gippal looked up at the lazy animal with hope.

"Well it all depends on which way she wanted to go. She could have gone that way—"The cat pointed in a direction—"To go to the castle or she could have gone that way—"He pointed in another direction and started talking faster and faster and more arms started appearing, pointing in different directions. "So you see, it all depends on where she wanted to go," The feline finished, but the trio had already left.

As they walked away Tidus mumbled, "That didn't help at all."  
The group suddenly came upon a girl with blonde hair, with ears and a tail that matched the color.

"E-excuse me…" The former summoner gently tapped the girl on the shoulder, causing her to jump and turn around quickly.

"Oh! You scared me… can I uh… help you?" The neko rubbed the back of her head nervously.

"Have you seen a blonde Al Bhed girl a little shorter then me with green swirly eyes?"

"Hmm, nope. I can't say I have, but maybe somebody in my clan has. Follow me," The neko girl started walking, but stopped and turned back around. "Oh, and my name's Aleera." She held out her hand and Yuna politely shook it.

"I'm Yuna, this is Tidus—" She pointed to her boyfriend. "and that's Gippal." She smiled pointed to the Al Bhed mechanic.

Aleera just nodded her head and walked through the woods with the gang close behind her. She got to a tree and started chanting some kind of foreign magic and a door suddenly appeared.

The blonde cat-girl opened the door and walked in with the Yuna, Gippal, and Tidus close behind.

When they got in the tree they saw many people just like the neko. They asked around, but nobody had seen Rikku.

Aleera turned to the gang and said, "Hmm, I believe it shall be dark soon. Yes. You three should stay here for shelter; it's not safe out there when it's dark. I shall be back soon."  
Before anybody could say anything else, the young woman left, and the trio heard a piercing whistle ring through the air. Soon, more and more nekos came into the big underground place hidden by the many trees of the forest. It wasn't long before Aleera came back with one other girl. She closed and sealed the door and sat down breathing heavily, probably from running.

She signaled for the trio to come to her and they obediently approached, feeling somewhat out of place.   
"Sara here saw your friend out there." Aleera looked up at them, breathing heavily.

"Well then we have to go find her!" Yuna ran for the door, but Sara quickly grabbed her arm.

"Don't, it's dangerous out there. You'll see things that you wish you never did. I don't know if your friend will make it, but you must stay here for the time being until the darkness passes."  
"Fine…" The high summoner looked down, defeated. She sat numbly onto the ground and prayed for her cousin.

**Back with Rikku**

Rikku and Cloud had finally sat down to rest on the side of the cliff, watching the smooth waterfall in front of them.

The blonde man turned his head to gaze at the Al Bhed to the left of him. "You don't… belong here, do you?"

Rikku looked over at him and tilted her head to the side.

"Is it that obvious?" Cloud just chuckled and nodded his head while the petite blonde girl grinned at him, but then she looked down with a solemn look on her face. "I . . . I want to go home . . . I miss all my friends and family. I'm starting to believe that it's hopeless though." Tears welled up in her green swirly eyes.

"Nothing is impossible." Cloud slowly lifted her chin so she was looking at him. Their eyes met and slowly, their faces moved towards each other. Rikku realized what he was doing and blushed a deep red.

Their lips were so close to touching when it suddenly started getting dark all at once. Cloud snapped his head back and quickly stood up, helping Rikku up as well. "Damn, I lost track of time. We have to get out of here… FAST!"

Before either of them knew it, it was pitch black and the same drooling, dripping monsters Rikku encountered before surrounded them. Cloud put her behind him protectively and pulled out his huge sword. One lunged at him but he just sliced it in half like it was nothing.

More and more were coming up. "Rikku, run! I'll stay here and fight them off. Just run back to the house!" Even through the darkness Rikku could see his piercing blue eyes. She stood there hesitating; she didn't want to just leave him there.

"Go!" Cloud yelled again, trying to get her to leave. Rikku, hesitant, turned around and took off running.

The only problem with all of this was that she didn't know where the house was. Rikku slowed down and stopped. Something felt terribly wrong, even more wrong than the night before where she'd been attacked. Almost like something was watching her. Something was, indeed, very wrong.


End file.
